A/N: hey guys, I'm sorry it took me so long to publish again. Since the holidays are over I have less time to write. But I'll try to write at least once a week and publish in the weekends. Also this chapter is more of a filler, but they gotta get to know each other better. ENJOY READING AND LEAVE COMMENTS <3

Keith's pov

"You're cheating!" I said accusing and threw my cards on the table. He laughed at me with a mischievous look in his eyes. "I'm not! You're just not holding the cards right, I can see them without trying my best!" He said causing Toby and Drake to join him in laughter while Lucy and Sam were helping their mom with baking eggs and bacon.

I had no idea what time we went to bed, but it felt way too early when Rachel had called us downstairs for brunch at half past twelve. I yawned as the cards were put away and Damon's dad, Philip, put down plates, culery and glasses.

Sam put down a plate with a pile of bacon and Lucy had a bowl with scrumbled eggs. As soon as everyone sat down we attacked the food as if we were wild animals who had been starving for days.

"And what is everyone doing today?" Rachel asked looking at each one of us. "Actually yes, I have something mom!" Drake said drawing all the attention to himself. "Today i'll be looking at an apartment with Jake, it's a few miles away from here but close enough to noth our family's." He said obviously proud of himself.
Rachel clasped her hands together. "That's great!" She said. "You better keep yourself to your budget cause you're not getting a single penny from us after that little stunt with your car." His father added stern.

Drake rolled his eyes. "Yeah dad, it's below our budget." He said annoyed and gorged his eggs before jumping up. "I gotta go, we're supposed to meet there. See you later!" He said and left.

"Keith and I are heading out for the park." Damon said and I gave him a suprised look. "We are?" I asked with my fork full of eggs on the way to my mouth. He nodded causing the rest to laugh. "Oh." I said and put the eggs in my mouth.

"I wanna go to the park too!" Sam whined and Rachel sighed. "We'll take you to the park some other time." I reassured him. "We are?" Damon repeated my sentence. "Yes we are, but not today." I decided and that put a wide smile at Sam's face.

"Sam, you and Lucy could come with me to the mall." Tony offered. "Are you going with Nathaniel?" Lucy said with sparkling eyes making Tony chuckle. "Yes, Nate is coming along." Lucy squeaked at excitement. "She has a crush on him." Damon cared to explain and Lucy gave him a nasty look.

"Can you ask if Nate will bring his sister Jenna? She is my best friend forever." Same said and my heart melted at his cute face. Sometimes I wished I had a baby brother, but my mother had several miscarriages after I was born so I never had one.

"Sure, I'll ask." Tony said with a shrug.

"Okay, anyways, Keith and I will be going, bye!" He said and grabbed my arm yanking me along on his way upstairs. "Shouldn't we have helped with cleaning?" I asked with raised brows when we made it to his room. "Nope, they'll manage." He said with a smile. In turn we took showers and got dressed.

When I came out of the bathroom Damon was packing a small backpack with paper, pens, a bag of crisps and a bottle of water and I added a few pencils and he gave me a smile with a bit of suprise in his eyes.

"You draw?" He asked curious and I nodded feeling how my cheeks flushed. I never really talked about my drawing and I never felt the necessarity of telling him. "That's awesome!" He said and his compliment touched me.
"You haven't seen any of my stuff." I said soft and he shrugged. "I'm sure your skills are way better than mine. I'm better with words I guess." He said lifting the bag on his shouldefs and leaving the room.

~^~

We sat at the river. Several weeping willows were standing along the riverbanks. We had chosen one and sat against the tree trunk, both with a piece of paper in our hands. He was staring and writing words once in a while and I was drawing. I had drawn the weeping willow at the other side of the river, and now I was drawing him.

I drew him sideways, the way I saw him from the corner of my eyes. One leg bend and one stretched, the pen and paper in his hands, his eyes closed and his head resting against the tree. He was beautiful to draw and I felt the butterflies in my stomach.

When I was satisfied I started drawing another picture of him, but not realistic. I used rough lines and a lot of black to draw his silhouet. As he looked down his hair would fall in front of his eye and that's how I drew his hair. I gave him wings and a halo and smudged the black over the paper.

Thisnis what he felt like. He went through a lot, I knew that, but not what. He wasn't always the happy smiling guys he tried to be, I knew that, but not why. The drawing represented his mystery and darkness, but also what he was to me, to others. He was like an angle sent from heaven to make me happy.

I heard his gasp and finished the last lines. I looked him in his widend eyes and smiled awkwardly.

Damon's pov

I was lost in my own thoughts and words on my paper. When I
looked over at Keith he was focused on the drawing he was drawing. Carefully I scooped closer trying not to disturb him and I glanced at his paper.

My eyes widend and I couldn't help but let out a gasp. He finished a few lines before looking at me with an awkward smile.

"That's gorgeous." I said honestly. He chuckled. "Are you saying that often about yourself?" He said boldy and I flushed. "Me?" I was flustered and looked at the drawing again. It was my posture and my hair.

"I'm not an angle." I muttered and he put the drawing aside. "You kinda are to me." He said softly and we both blushed.

After a moment of silence I saw the other drawings he had made. "May I see your other creations?" I asked and he handed them to me with his cheeks burning red. I looked down at the weeping willow he had drawn and sighed at the beauty of it.

"This looks gorgeous, Keith. How come you never told me you liked drawing?" I asked him curiously. He shrugged and I looked to his next piece of art, a sideview of me against this tree.

I raised an eyebrow when I looked at it. Did he really draw this? And again me? I looked way better than in reality. I sighed in adoration be looked back up to meet his gaze.

"You are an amazing artist, Keith." I said suddenly breathless. He just smiled and we continued staring at each other. "Tell me about your father."

"What would you like to know?" He asked a bit uncomfortable. "Everything as long as it's something you want to talk about." I answered with a couraging smile.

"Okay, well uhm, I remember my dad quite well, since it has been only two years since he died. He had green eyes and some sort of blonde hair. And he was kind and full of joy. He loved my mom and me deeply and he told us every how lucky he was to have us." He smiled at the memory and stared a few seconds at the sky, trying not to show the moisture in his eyes.

"My dad and I were partners in crime. We loved to tease my mom until she went crazy, but we would be laughing until she joined us. We all loved the same kind of music, classic rock and alternative music and sometimes in the weekends my dad would put the stereo on and then we all sang and danced along." He smiled at the memory and sighed.

"We were happy but not a perfect family. We've had enough fights about school or work, about a lot actually. But we would figure it out soon and return to just enjoy to be together. Our happy little family." At the end of his sentence his voice broke and he quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. He took a deep breath and smiled quickly at me. I looked back with sympathy, not able to imagine how it was for him.

"When my father had a regular check-up in the hospital they found something odd and after the blood results he appeared to have cancer." He swallowed and took another shaky breath. "The doctors couldn't say how much time he had left but as soon he started chemotherapy he grew weaker with the day. It was horrible to see my strong healthy father see crumbling down until he was nothing but a living corpse." Tears rolled down his cheek and I felt the pain in his voice.

"In the middle of the night me and my mom were called to the hospital, because he wanted to say goodbye." I grabbed his handed before I knew what I was doing but he intertwined his fingers with mine as if he needed support to go on.

"He told my mom he loved her and that he was the luckiest man in the world because of her love and our little family. He looked at me while I sat on his bedside holding his hand. The now fragile hand that once helped me learn how to walk, lifted me up when I fell, wiped away the tears when I was sad and high fived me when we were joking around." He choked on his tears and put my other hand on his cheek. After he had calmed down he looked at me and sighed. I dropped my hand as he continued.

"He said I would become a strong man. He said that he loved me and that he would watch over me, proud of me like he always had done and always would do, no matter what I would do, I had to make sure it was something that made me happy new that it would be alright." Keith smiled at that and looked down at our hands.

"My mom me I sat each on one side of the bed, holding his hand as his eyes closed. And in the silence that followed, waiting for his heart to stop, we promised each other without words to get through this together. And we did, sort of. It still hurts and I feel weak breaking down every once in a while being so "depressed" as my mother calls it." He sighed and looked up and our eyes locked.

"You're not weak, Keith. You're strong and I'm sure your father is proud of you. I am proud of you." I said and he smiled.